EVERETT — A drastic shift in the state’s interpretation of its sustainable forest policy will affect when and what types of forests can be harvested in Washington.
Earlier this month, the Department of Natural Resources board passed a resolution allowing the agency to sell mature forests for harvest instead of setting the trees aside for habitat conservation. Advocacy groups are frustrated with the quick and major change in policy interpretation.
The new interpretation could influence ongoing litigation in Snohomish County, where the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition is suing the department for the Stilly Revisited timber sale to Sierra Pacific Industries. The site, filled with century-old Douglas firs and western hemlocks, is 13 miles northeast of Arlington. In July, DNR sold the land for $3 million.
In 2006, the agency created the Policy for Sustainable Forests. The document states within 100 years, the agency will manage 10% to 15% of the state’s land designated as habitat for at-risk species into “older” forests. Management can include thinning certain trees so the forest evolves into something that resembles old growth.
This means the department finds land with multiple species of trees, fallen logs and varied undergrowth vegetation to cultivate into old-growth-like stands.
The sustainable forest policy states “once older-forest targets are met, structurally complex forest stands that are not needed to meet the targets may be considered for harvest activities.”
Scientists say older forests are better for animals because of high diversity of habitat and more resilient trees. Additionally, older, bigger trees store more carbon, helping combat climate change.
But bigger trees are not only more ecologically valuable, they’re also more economically valuable.
Since the policy was passed 18 years ago, DNR has interpreted the language to mean only after older-forest targets are met could the department consider complex forests for harvest.
But Resolution 1645, passed six weeks before Dave Upthegrove takes over as commissioner of public lands, flips the almost two-decade-old interpretation on its head.
The shift “muddies the water a little bit when Commissioner Upthegrove seeks to impose a different interpretation,” Washington Forest Law Center managing attorney Peter Goldman said. Upthegrove has repeatedly expressed a desire to preserve older forests for conservation.
Goldman added: “I think they’re setting up a lawsuit against Upthegrove if he doesn’t follow their new interpretation.”
The new document states the board does not interpret the policy as prohibiting DNR from harvesting older forests before the agency has reached its older forest goals.
The resolution reasons not all structurally complex stands are suitable to be managed toward older-forest targets, but in exchange the agency can now designate areas that are not currently structurally complex to be set aside for older-forest goals.
“Nothing in the (Policy for Sustainable Forests) suggests that DNR may substitute younger stands – most of which have been historically managed as Douglas fir monocrops – for structurally complex stands,” Stephen Kropp, founder of the Legacy Forest Defense Coalition, said in an email.
In 2019, the DNR was hit by three lawsuits after the agency released its conservation plan for the marbled murrelet, a small seabird listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Two pro-timber lawsuits pushed the department to increase logging access, while the other lawsuit filed by a conservation group believed DNR wasn’t doing enough to conserve habitat for the bird.
The lawsuits were resolved in DNR’s favor. In a change of tactics, conservation groups are now fighting individual timber sales, such as Stilly Revisited.
“As that tempo of litigation has been picking up, we thought that it was best to clarify what that policy for sustainable forest actually sets,” Emmons said.
The resolution doesn’t change the sustainable forests policy, but it is a document that can be referred to in court to show the board’s interpretation. The board includes the state Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal and the dean of Washington State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson. Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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